‘Outstanding’ schools add as much as £100k on to local house prices – but the North East is blessed with good schools AND affordable homes
- The average house price in England where top-rated schools are is £331,605
- That is nearly £100k more than the average price near ‘inadequate’ schools
- Sunderland is the best value place to live if you want your child to attend a top-rated school, while Kensington in London is the most expensive
Families in England are paying a house price premium of as much as £100,000 to make sure their children live within the catchment of schools rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, new analysis suggests.
The average price of a house in England where top-rated schools are stands at £331,605, according to research by comparison website Confused.com.
That is about £38,600 more than the average price of homes nearby schools rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, about £78,000 more than areas with schools that ‘require improvement’ and nearly £100,000 more than postcodes with schools rated ‘inadequate’.
Schools and house prices: Ofsted ratings are driving up house prices, according to research
Researchers analysed the Ofsted ratings of 20,545 secondary and primary schools in England and found that average house prices often reflect the quality of the local school.
However, the headline property value is pushed up by London, where the average house price near an outstanding school is £635,949, the highest in England.
Meanwhile in Birmingham – which has the highest number of top-rated schools outside of the capital at 160 – parents who want to stay nearby the best schools are looking to pay on average £248,000 for a home.
In reality though, there are still some areas where families can buy a house near a top-scoring school for under £100,000, according to the report. And they are mostly in the north-east of England.
Sunderland is the best value place to live if parents want their child to attend a top-rated school, with house prices near outstanding schools costing an average of £114,157 there.
London house prices near outstanding schools are the highest in England
The Academy at Shotton Hall in Sunderland has an outstanding Ofsted rating, and average house prices in that postcode are even lower at just over £59,000, making it the catchment area with the lowest average house prices.
Darlington and Cleveland also offer some of the best value areas with top rated schools and more affordable house prices.
St Michael’s C of E primary School in Darlington has an outstanding rating and house prices around there are just over £60,000 on average.
While postcode TS3 in Cleveland has four outstanding schools and the average house price in that catchment area is also just opver £61,000.
But London is home to the most expensive postcode in England if families want their child to attend a top-notch school.
The top 10 schools with the cheapest house prices nearby….
… And the top 10 schools with the highest house prices nearby
Homes in the sought-after catchment area of South Kensington and Knightsbridge cost families more than £1.7million on average, the highest in the whole of England.
And buying a house near an outstanding school in Western Central London will cost families a staggering £1.3million.
House prices near an outstanding school in LE1 (Winstanley in Leicester) however, only costs an average of £117,064.
A spokesperson for Confused.com, which created a guide to buying a house in a good catchment area, said: ‘Buying a home near a good school is something parents start thinking about years before the time comes. But what they might not realise is how much this is going to cost them.
‘We found that those looking to move near a school with an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating could be paying almost £40,000 more than those rated ‘Good’, on average.’